Tied Destinies
by DarkenedCeres
Summary: So it begins, He thought to himself, the great battle of son against son. Of brother against brother. Hao and Yoh fanfic. Fourth chapter uploaded.
1. Birth

Introduction

A little fantasy fanfic that ponders what would happen if Yoh and Hao were both princes in a kingdom that could only have one ruler. XD I wonder what will happen...? Review.

Disclaimer

I do not own Shaman King.

Chapter One - The Birthing

There was a hush around the palace. Not a leaf rustled, or a bird chirped, which was unusual for that time of day. Even the servants walked in quick, soft steps, creeping along the palace walkways. The only noise was the far-off, faint sound of a woman screaming. This particular woman had a good reason to be screaming. She was having a baby.

Mikihisa leaned over his wife, his silken golden robes rustling as he looked on worriedly.

Keiko panted, her eyes tightly shut. She gritted her teeth and pushed.

Several of the lady palace attendants who were watching gasped, seeing a head appear. Their fans fluttered faintly.

"Sire, the baby is coming out!"

"I know that, I can see!" Mikihisa snapped.

A neck and shoulders followed the head. The midwife reached down and took the blood-covered baby from Keiko, picking up a towel from a nearby attendant. She wiped the baby off gently.

"It's a boy," She announced joyously.

The entire court that was present sighed a breath of relief. The peaceful reign of the Asakuras would be continued.

Mikihisa motioned for a chair, and fell back on it, exhausted.

Meanwhile, Keiko was still taking deep breaths and shuddering. Inhaling, she pushed again. Another head appeared.

"Sire, sire, it's twins!"

"Twins?" Mikihisa, hearing the announcement, lifted his head, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

The court murmured worriedly among themselves. This had not been anticipated. Joint rulers to a kingdom never worked.

The midwife carefully lifted the second baby up, cleaned it off, and glanced at it.

"A boy."

There was a silence. Everyone awaited the king's decision.

Mikihisa sighed, "One of them will have to die. Call in a onmyouji."

Keiko immediately sat up.

"No one will be killing any of my children."

The servants quivered, not knowing which one to obey. Mikihisa waved a hand, dismissing what Keiko had said.

"Move along," He said, "And hurry up about it."

The servants scuttled away.

Keiko stiffened, outraged, but not daring to speak.

Mikihisa closed his eyes wearily. Being a king had changed him dramatically, he realized. Several years ago, he would have never thought of killing newborns. Now, he was ordering one of his own sons to be executed.

"The onmyouji has arrived, sire."

"Bring him in."

"Yes, sire."

A bent old man limped in. He had a long, shimmering white beard, wrinkles around his eyes, and a kind face.

Pointing his knobbly cane to the twins, he said in a raspy voice, "Are these the youngsters?"

Mikihisa nodded.

"I want you to tell me who will be best suited to rule my kingdom," He said.

The onmyouji looked at him and then looked at the babies.

Walking over to the midwife, he asked, "May I?" and took one baby from her. After studying it for a moment, he gently handed it back and took the second one from her, doing the same thing as he had done to the first. Then, he slowly walked back to the middle of the court, and shook his head.

"Well?" Mikihisa asked impatiently.

"I cannot judge which one will be best suited for the kingdom."

"What?" Mikihisa bellowed, jumping from his chair, "What do you mean you can't?"

"I cannot read babies. Babies have no heart, no soul. They are like clean slates that have never been drawn on."

Mikihisa held a hand to his head, sitting back down.

"How will I be able to choose my successor then?" He asked wearily.

The old man limped toward the doors, his cane making thumping sounds on the rich, red carpet.

"Give them a few years. Give them a chance to love and learn. Then call on me again."

Keiko laid down, satisfied.

"I think that is what you should do too."

Mikihisa looked at her, then at the old man, then at the nonplused court. He suddenly felt incredibly tired. His bones ached. The babies, He thought, looking at them, were too young to have bones that ached.

"All right," He relented, "Give them a few years."

Keiko smiled.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" She asked the midwife, "Are you going to keep the queen from her babies?"

As the midwife handed the babies to her, Keiko noticed that they weren't crying. She was a first-time mother, but she was quite certain that babies were supposed to cry when they were born.

"What's wrong with them?" She asked the woman, "Are they sick?"

"No, Your Highness," The midwife held her eyes low, "They are just unusually quiet."

"How strange," Keiko said out loud. But that's fine, She thought, nobody should be crying at the birth of the heirs to the kingdom.

The old man reached the doors. Pushing them open with his cane, he looked back at Keiko and the twins.

"If I may, Your Highness, before I go, I have some suggestions on what to name the princes."

Keiko looked up, giving the old man a grateful look. He had saved her sons, and she owed him a great debt for that.

"Of course. What are the names?"

The old man stroked his beard, his eyes softening as he looked at the mother and her children.

"That one, " He said, motioning at the baby that had come last, "Should be named Yoh." "And that one," He said, motioning to the quieter baby, who was now looking around curiously, "Should be named Hao."

"Hao and Yoh," Keiko said to herself. They sounded nice.

"I like them," Mikihisa said loudly, from his chair. He glanced at the royal scribes, who were talking excitedly among themselves. "Shouldn't you be writing the names and the announcement of the new heirs to the throne down?" He suggested quietly. The scribes, caught in their slacking, immediately stopped talking and started rummaging around for parchment. "Take the queen away," He said, motioning to the lady palace attendants, "She needs her rest, and so do the babies." As the rest of the court gradually dispersed, leaving to go to their different duties, he looked out the magnificent gold-framed window that was at the side of the room that he was sitting in. The sun was shining brightly, which caused him to squint. There was still a stench of blood in the room, even though the servants had cleaned up the mess that had been caused by the birth. A stench of blood that would not go away for years and years, as long as one of the twins were alive. So it begins, He thought to himself, the great battle of son against son. Of brother against brother.

So, do you like it so far? Does it suck? Should I continue it or just give up and dunk my head in a fishbowl? Review and tell me what you think.


	2. Growing Up

Introduction

You probably thought that I'd never update this lunk'o'junk, eh? Well, you were wrong. In this chapter, we will explore each of the twin's different personalities and ruling ways. They are _very _different, and I really tried to show it in this chapter. I also tried to keep their personalities from being different from the manga, busometimes it's hard. Really hard. I have a quirky writing style, so don't mind it if you get lost in some of my paragraphs. It's my fault! O.o;;

Disclaimer

I don't own Shaman King.

Chapter Two - Growing Up

The twins grew up, as children soon do, and each learned important lessons on the way. Yoh absorbed everything that everyone told him, like an all-purpose sponge, with no discrimination and acceptance. Hao, however, was exposed to just as many opinions as his brother, but was very selective on what he took in. The result were two very different personalities.

When the historians taught them about their great ancestors and how the Asakuras came to reign, Yoh listened open-mouthed and wide-eyed, while Hao was working on blocking things out of his mind. Hao had a talent of forgetting things, or ignoring them, and he used that talent to it's fullest potential. For instance, when he had learned of his grandfather Yohmei Asakura's reign, he chose to remember when the generals had caused a riot and almost killed Yohmei, but conviently forgot that his grandfather was a harsh ruler, and enforced many unfair laws. In Hao's mind, everything was black and white, wrong and right. He was able to keep this seemingly ignorant view of the world without having any gray areas because he could make himself blind, deaf and dumb whenever a event arose that threatened to shatter his black and white paradise, and returned to normal when it was over. He believed his brother to be too easily led by those around him. He also held great disdain for humans in general, and it was a while before he finally learned of a word that described people like him: Misanthropist. A long and complicated word for such a basic and simple feeling, he thought, but then again, humans always had to make things a lot more complicated than they really were.

Too complicated indeed, Yoh thought as he looked out onto the kingdom. All he wanted was to sleep and live out his life, was that too much to ask? There was a time, he thought fondly, when you were a prince and you could just loaf around the palace all day, and no one had the power to tell you to do any work. These days everyone was always bringing you their problems, their questions, as if they thought that you could magically solve it for them. They thought that just because you had a crown on your head, you were somehow wiser than them, and had the ablilty to bless them in some way, to make their crops stop shriveling, or to keep their children from getting sick. It was common sense, Yoh thought, that if your crops are drying up, you should water them. In fact, most of the problems that the peasants complained to him about were not even problems. The complaints that were problems, like if someone's daughter could not get married because she was too ugly, he had little control over. Sometimes he almost thought that Hao was right about people, but whenever he just felt like giving up on them and joining Hao in his gloomy view of the world, he couldn't shake off the strange feeling that the kingdom was a peach rotting in the sun. If he was to join Hao and give up on the people entirely, then who was the help them? If both of their future rulers had given up, who was to stop the rot from reaching the core?

This would always make him feel guilty. He loved Hao as a brother dearly, but they would always be complete opposites. He would always think that Hao was too strict, too harsh in his methods as a king, and Hao would always think that he was too soft and naive. That was their relationship, and would stay that way as brothers, as princes, and maybe even as rulers.

Whenever Yoh looked at Hao, he would feel too frivolous. It was all from the time when they had taken a swim in the palace's private pool together. Yoh had glanced up when his brother was entering the steamy room, and saw his chest. Hao's body was marked up, with a giant roped scar from the time when he had tried to save a man in a knife fight, and many, many bruises from when he had rolled down a hill in an effort to save a egg that had fell out of a nest. Hao may hate humans, Yoh thought, but he values life much more. Yoh looked down at his own body through the clear, crystal blue water, the same as Hao's, but with no marks. He didn't even had a small cut. You did not come across many injuries going to lessons with the historian and walking in the garden. It was then that he realized how completely shallow he must seem to Hao, a man that would risk his life and did to save a baby bird. Hao, he had asked then, Does Mother and Father know that you risked your life for a peasant?

No, he had said, surprised, why would they? I didn't tell them, and I made the healers keep the secret. Mother and Father wouldn't understand, you know how they are. Mother would go crazy and start crying, saying how my life is so much more valuable than anyone else.

But it is, You had argued, you're a prince, and that man was just an ordinary person.

A prince's life gone from the world holds no more weight or value to the Lord as a normal man's life, Hao had replied.

Yes it does, You had said, just like if you had a bottle of water from the fountain of youth and a bottle of regular water. The bottles are exactly the same, the same size, the same volume, and the same weight, but if you had spilled the bottle from the fountain of youth, you sure would miss that more than if you had spilled the bottle of normal water.

Lives are not water, Hao had said quietly.

Hearing his brother's words, You had known not to push the matter any more. They had both floated there in the pool silently that day, both lost in their individual thoughts, soaking up the water and taking up room.

You had sensed that his father was a bit scared of Hao. Perhaps he thought that Hao was planning to overthrow him and take the throne by force. As much as their Father cared for them, it was a half-hearted love. Mikihisa had been on the throne too long, and that had filled his heart full of distrust. Perhaps Mikihisa, too, had sensed that Hao was special. Perhaps that was why he feared him. You knew that his brother had the strength and the determination to take the throne from his old Father, and the only reason he had not done it by now was because he could care less about ruling a kingdom. They were supposed to be twins, but You felt weak when he compared himself and his brother.

Okay. The end of Chapter Two. Whee. Yay. Okay, well, before you leave and go back to your life, remember to review. Let me show you a equation that I made up.

MORE REVIEWS equals FASTER UPDATES

Very simple. So what do you have to do now? listens to reply That's right, review! So why don't you go ahead and do it? O.o;;


	3. Planning

Introduction

Well. There was a bit of a problem-o with the last chapter. But, I think it's fixed now.

This chapter will start to actually go into the story. I've decided that I've spent way too much time on how the characters relate to one another. TT Sorry darlings. My mood changes a lot. It's PMS!

Ren will be making his grand entrance in this chapter...as a evil advisor! How fun. Sorry to all you Ren fans. .

Disclaimer

I don't own Shaman King.

Chapter Three - Planning

"She won't give me back what she owes!" A bald man with gold earrings and a long, flowing red and gold tunic protested, staring at a thin woman dressed in rags, bent over on her knees in the center of the shining white marble floor of the palace court. He was the perfect picture of the typical rich city merchant.

"I've given him all I can afford! He's just a old miser that wants to drive a woman into poverty to expand his own riches!"

The woman looked appealingly to Mikihisa. He could see the bags under her eyes.

"Please, please give me another chance. I will pay back my debts once I have money..."

"Yes, and when will that be? Next month? Next year?" The merchant said as he got up and strode towards the woman.

The woman's dark, beady eyes flashed with anger.

"How dare you doubt me? How _dare_ you, you - you - you ugly fat pig!"

The merchant gasped, and his face turned a bright scarlet. He made a violent gesture, as if to slap the woman.

The woman threw herself down, sprawling over the floor as the palace guards rushed over to take hold of the man. He was struggling wildly and roaring, using his teeth, fists, to escape.

Mikihisa winced at the horrible sound. He massaged his temple, closing his eyes.

"Take them both away," He said, getting up from his throne, "I'm not in the mood for this right now."

"Yes sir."

The guards dragged the still struggling merchant out, along with the silent woman.

"Are you all right?" Keiko looked, concerned at her husband, "You seem to be feeling very disoriented lately. This is the third time you've had to call off something today."

Mikihisa shook his head.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"At least take some medicine."

"I'm fine!" Mikihisa snapped. His temple immediately throbbed furiously, and he bent over, groaning.

"Mikihisa!" Keiko jumped up and bent down over the shaking body of her husband. Lifting his head up onto her silk-clad lap, she cried out for the servants.

"Did you hear? The king had one of his headaches again."

"Oh, really? How bad was it this time?"

"Bad. Really bad. He collapsed, and the queen had to call in servants to take him to the doctor."

"How terrible. Is he okay now?"

"Yes, he's fine. The queen is in hysterics though."

"Poor dear."

The servants stopped talking as soon as Ren strode into the room. Gossiping annoyed him, but he always learned a great deal of things that helped him that way. This was no exception.

So, the king was sick, He thought. Interesting. He could work this unfortunate event to his benefit. The old man must be at least fifty by now. His time was probably up. The Asakura kings never lived long. Ren had been Mikihisa's father's advisor, and his father's symptoms had also started off with headaches. Mikihisa's father had let Ren have free reign to rule the kingdom while he was sick, his son Mikihisa being too young, and not trusting his wife to do so. Ren had had a taste of power then, and became intoxicated by it. To be able to control people's lives, their wealth, their status, their property, was kind of like a drug to him. Those few months when he was allowed to rule was like heaven. It held a kind of pleasure for him, to be like a kind of God to people, controlling them like puppets. When the king finally died, he named Mikihisa heir, and cast Ren aside to be the royal advisor. It wouldn't have been so bad, if Mikihisa had trusted him as much as his father had. But he didn't, and Ren was often shunned aside, barely listened to when he made suggestions on how to run the kingdom. Ren had resigned himself, thinking that he would never have a taste of power again. But now the king was sick, just like his father. He also had two young sons. Young, but old enough to rule, if something should happen to their father.

Children are easily persuaded, Ren thought, smiling. The king was quickly reaching his time. If one of the twins should be led to kill the other one, Ren could secure the throne for himself. The young prince would be like a political marionette, and Ren would be holding the strings. Ren would have the power of the royal army behind him, as the soliders were most familiar with him, and he could easily persuade one of the princes to try and take the throne.

Now, just to decide which one.

Yoh was weak, but he was too close to the king and queen. Ren shook his head. Yoh was a bad choice. He would go running to his parents as soon as Ren approached him with the idea.

That left Hao.

Ren remembered his first meeting with the boy. He had been walking down the palace courtyard, when he heard a noise. He had walked toward it, expecting to find one of the lady servants sneaking off with one of the guards again. Instead, he found Hao talking to a bird. The bird was beautiful, with glossy, long, blue feathers and a graceful curved beak. It was perched on Hao's shoulder, it's head leaning towards Hao's head, as if it were actually listening to what the boy was saying.

As Ren looked on at the strange scene, he felt a twinge in his heart. The boy must be lonely, He had thought. Didn't he have any friends?

Now that Ren looked back onto this, he found that Hao was the perfect for his plan. He wasn't close to his parents, and while he was stronger than Yoh, Ren was sure that even Hao could not withstand his persuasive power. After all, how hard would it be to win over a boy that talks to animals?

Abrupt ending again. It's just so hard to make a good ending. So. Review.


	4. Meeting

Introduction

Ah. It's been months, hasn't it? I've been busy with school, work, life and all that stuff. Thank you to all those that reviewed.

I'm just going to say it. The last chapters were, and are, pure, solid, grade A crap. (With the exception of the second chapter, which I think is somewhat passable.) I was just reading them over, and I was shocked by their crappiness. Their _blatant_ crappiness. It doesn't matter. I'm still going to keep on writing, and hopefully, I'll get better. If I don't...well, you guys will just have to keep on dealing with it.

Disclaimer

I don't own Shaman King.

Chapter Four - Meeting

Hao closed his eyes, leaning his head against the cool marble of the pool wall. He found that he coud think best when his eyes were closed. It was something about the comforting darkness that came when he shut his eyes, replacing the harsh lines of reality, that allowed his thoughts to come to him easier. Right now, he thought of the royal advisor. He could not recall his name, though the advisor had been working at the palace since he had been a little child. He had caught the advisor on several occasions looking at him, and he wondered what he was up to. One time, Hao looked back at him when he was staring, and the advisor flinched and pretended that he was just looking at the painting behind Hao.

For a split second, Hao had seen into the man's eyes, and that was enough to make him wary. Hao had first signed the staring off as just normal curiousity, but those eyes had held more than that.

Hao had seen arrogance and calculation in those eyes.

Now, as he floated in the warm water of the pool, he wondered what the man was thinking of. The advisor, for all his pride and worldliness, was not a stupid man. If he planned to rebel against Hao's father, which was what Hao suspected, he would have planned his strategy to the last soldier.

But then why would he be staring at Hao? Was he somehow unknowingly in the advisor's plan?

This thought made Hao slightly annoyed. He hated to think that he was being used. If anything, Hao would be the user.

A small noise made him stiffen. It was the soft, dry sound of the pool's door moving across the ground. Someone had come in.

Hao turned slightly in the water, careful not to make any noise that would tell the intruder that he knew that he was in the room. He opened his eyes slightly, so he could see the front of the pool. He listened carefully for sounds that the person was coming closer.

He heard the swish and the raspy sound of expensive fabric dragging across the ground. Whoever it was, he was not a simple thief. The sound stopped, and Hao could feel the person's presence directly behind him.

"What do you what?" Hao asked, closing his eyes again. Whoever it was, it was clear that he was not out to kill him. If he was, he would have made his move by then.

"Prince." The person shifted his position, obviously caught off guard.

"Yes?" Hao repeated.

"Prince."

"Have you decided what you are going to say yet? So far, we've been talking in single words, and I still do not know, after three sentences, the answer to my first question, which was what you wanted. Do you plan on saying "prince" a third time?" Hao asked, his eyes still closed.

The person's body stiffened in anger.

"Of course, I would not wish to _bother _you, Prince Hao. I just came to tell you some news."

Hao recognized the soft, oozing voice. He had heard it risen loudly in anger often in the court discussions. It was the advisor.

"Of course," Hao opened his eyes and turned in the water, so that he was facing him, "Go ahead."

"The king has had a...a seizure of some sort in the palace today. It seems that he is bedridden now."

"How unfortunate," Hao said, his face looking strangely detached, "Father seems to have been having a lot of those lately."

Ren smiled inwardly at Hao's lack of feeling. He _had_ chosen wisely.

"Yes. Apparently, the doctors say that if this goes on, he will not be in a well enough condition to rule."

"Oh?" Hao looked up until his eyes met Ren's.

"Yes. Do you know what that means, young Prince?"

Hao blinked.

"Well, obviously, there will be a great fuss and uproar, and Mother will start crying, and Father will insist that he is well enough to rule, and-"

"You know what I mean," Ren bent down, bringing his face closer to Hao's, "One of you will have to be king."

"And by "one of you", you mean my brother Yoh and I." Hao stood up in the pool. Stepping out, he began drying himself with a towel that one of the maids had left for him beside the pool.

Getting up, Ren walked until he was beside Hao.

"You strike me as a smart young man. Clearly, you realize what your father's, the King's, sickness means for you. There will only be one successor. Only one. It's going to be either you or your brother."

"And you're saying...why not make it me?" Hao finished drying and picked up his clothes, which were in a pile on the floor. Ren watched as he put them on.

"Exactly," Ren smirked, "You _are_ a smart boy."

"So, how would I...get rid of the competition?" Hao asked.

"Oh. That would be easy. Asassins. Poison. Snakes. There are tons of ways to get rid of him."

"Those wouldn't work," Hao said, carefully brushing off a piece of invisible lint from his pants, "There are guards everywhere, and the maids check all the food and rooms throughly."

"Oh. Archers then. They can shoot him." Ren was caught off guard. He did not expect Hao to ask him in such detail.

"Where would they stand?" Hao asked.

Ren motioned to a bush outside.

"Look out the window more carefully. There are guards behind the trees, the bushes, everywhere. Your archer would be killed in an instant, " Hao said.

"Well, there are other ways of killing him."

"Tell me them."

Ren thought for a couple of minutes. He shrugged.

"I haven't thought about that yet. I'm sure I could figure it out."

"You should have it already figured out, if you're going to do such a big thing."

"Well, I haven't, yet. Give me time. All I need is your agreement to work with me."

"But how will I know that your plan will work?"

"Why don't you try it? Try the plan, and see for yourself how it goes."

"I believe that it is important to know where you are going, before you go," Hao said, "Now, if you have nothing else of use to tell me, I suggest you leave and go advise people, which was what you were hired to do."

Ren's eyes narrowed.

"I will succeed in throwing the King off his throne, " He spat out, "Whether or not you help me. So I suggest you stop being a _child_, and _grow up_. This is the real world, not one of your play pretend games with animals. You will find, that if you do not take this chance before it is gone, someone will, and it will get very unpleasant for you indeed."

Finishing that, he turned and strode out.

I may or may not update for another few months. It all depends on the reviews. Obviously, if I check my e-mail inbox and it's filled with "New Review!" alerts, I'll feel more inclined to write up another chapter.

'Till next time, whenever that time may be.


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